Summary

Fourteen-year-old Reem, from Sanaa, was 11 years old when
her father married her to her cousin, a man almost 21 years her senior. One
day, Reem’s father dressed her in a niqab (the Islamic veil that
covers the face, exposing only the eyes), and took her by car to Radda, 150
kilometers southeast of Sanaa, to meet her soon-to-be husband. Against
Reem’s will, a quick religious marriage ensued. Three days after she was
married, her husband raped her. Reem attempted suicide by cutting her wrists
with a razor. Her husband took her back to her father in Sanaa, and Reem then
ran away to her mother (her parents are divorced). Reem’s mother escorted
her to court in an attempt to get a divorce. The judge told her, “We
don’t divorce little girls.” Reem replied, “But how come you allow
little girls to get married?”

The political turmoil that has swept Yemen since early 2011
has overshadowed the plight of child brides such as Reem, as thousands of
protesters took to the streets to demand the end of President Ali Abdullah
Saleh’s 33-year rule, and security forces responded with excessive and
deadly force. But, while the focus of attention both inside and outside of
Yemen is understandably the political future of the country, following
President Saleh’s agreement in November to cede power before elections in
February, child marriages and other discrimination against women and girls in
Yemen continue unabated. And while the president’s resignation topped the
list of most protestors’ demand, many young demonstrators especially are
calling for a wide range of reforms, including measures to guarantee equality
between women and men, and an end to child marriage.

The world took notice of these gender-related abuses when
Tawakkol Karman, a Yemeni woman activist, was in October named a co-recipient
of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. Karman has spearheaded the anti-Saleh protests,
and she also is a women’s rights activist and a vocal proponent of
setting a minimum age for child marriage. Honoring Karman serves as a reminder
that respect for women’s rights must not be ignored, including the rights
of girls and women to be free from child and forced marriages and other forms
of discrimination.

Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East, is beset by
high unemployment, widespread corruption and rampant human rights abuses. These abuses include child marriages, which are widespread.
According to a nationally representative survey conducted by the Yemeni
government and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in 2006, 14 percent of girls in Yemen are married before reaching age 15, and
52 percent are married before 18. A 2005 study by Sanaa University noted that,
in some rural areas, girls as young as eight are married.

In 1999 Yemen’s parliament, citing
religious grounds, abolished article 15 of Yemen’s Personal Status Law,
which set the minimum age for marriage for boys and girls at 15. Yemen
currently has no minimum age for marriage. Boys or girls can be married at any
age, but in practice it is girls who are most often married young, often to
much older men. The only protection offered under article 15 of the Personal
Status Law is the prohibition on sexual intercourse until girls reach puberty.
However, as in the case of Reem and others documented by Human Rights Watch
illustrates this prohibition in fact does not guarantee protection. Sometimes
girls may be forced into sex and subjected to marital rape before puberty.

The consequences of child marriage can be
devastating and long lasting. Research on child marriage conducted by experts
and organizations show that most girls who marry young are removed from school,
cutting short the education and skills needed to provide for themselves and
their families. Many become pregnant and have children soon after marriage. As
girls with little education and power in their marriage, they have little
chance of controlling how many children they have, or when they have them. This
increases their risk of reproductive health problems. They are often confined
to the home and not permitted to work outside. Their low social status makes
them more vulnerable to abuse.

Reproductive health studies show that young
women face greater risks in pregnancy than older women, including
life-threatening obstructed labor due to adolescents’ smaller pelvises.
Yemen has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the region. The
shortage of prenatal and postnatal healthcare services, especially in
Yemen’s rural areas, place girls’ and women’s lives at risk.
An overwhelming majority of Yemeni women still deliver at home, often without
the assistance of a skilled birth attendant who could handle childbirth
emergencies. Girls who marry young often have insufficient information on
family planning or none at all. As young wives they find it difficult to assert
themselves against older husbands to negotiate family planning.

Child marriage can also expose young girls
and women to gender-based violence, including domestic abuse and sexual
violence. A 2002 official survey on domestic violence in Yemen showed that 17.3
percent of respondents had experienced sexual violence, 54 percent suffered
physical abuse, and 50 percent verbal threats. Domestic abuse—physical
and emotional assault within the home—often isolates girls from their
family and friends, preventing them from developing a support network to help
them address the abuse. In 2005 the World Health Organization (WHO) conducted a
multi-country study on domestic violence in different regions of the world that
showed that women between 15 and 19 years old who are married run a greater
risk of being exposed to sexual violence, including forced sex or marital
rape.

A government study in collaboration with
UNICEF on access to education for Yemeni girls shows that opportunities for
education are restricted for many reasons. Many parents force girls to leave
school when they reach puberty, or even earlier in rural areas where 80 percent
of Yemen’s population lives, to help with household and farm chores and
because of a lack of female teachers and separate school infrastructure for
girls. But parents also take girls out of school early to prepare them for
marriage. Once married, very few girls continue or complete their education.
Girls without a formal education have fewer opportunities to work and
financially provide for themselves and their families.

Yemen is unlikely to meet a number of its Millennium
Development Goals, a set of objectives agreed to by most United Nations (UN)
member states to alleviate poverty and promote development by 2015. The United Nations
Development Program (UNDP) cites child marriage as a factor that contributes to
Yemen’s lack of progress in meeting at least two goals: gender equality
and reduced maternal mortality.

Yemen is party to a number of international treaties and
conventions that explicitly prohibit child marriage and commit states parties
to take measures to eliminate the practice. These include the Convention on the
Rights of Child, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of
Discrimination against Women, the Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum
Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriage, the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights.

Many officials in Yemen’s parliament
agree that a ban on child marriage is fundamental to safeguarding the rights of
young girls. However, a small but powerful group of conservative
parliamentarians oppose setting a minimum age for marriage, arguing that doing
so would lead to “the spreading of immorality”, undermine
“family values,” and would be contrary to Sharia, Islamic law. In
2009 a majority of parliamentarians voted to set the minimum age for marriage
at 17. However, the conservative opposition used a parliamentary procedure to
stall the draft law indefinitely. The political crisis in Yemen has paralyzed
parliamentary action on this and many other legislative reforms. However, the
next government should not use the crisis as an excuse to further delay
protecting girls from the institutionalised abuse of legal child marriages.

Human
Rights Watch calls on the Yemeni government to support women’s and
girls’ rights to non-discrimination to end child marriage. The government
should adopt and enforce a law setting a minimum age for marriage. It should
work to change the cultural acceptance of child marriage, and promote education
for girls and women. It should also take measures to prevent and redress
domestic and sexual violence, and ensure that women and girls have access to
adequate reproductive health services. International stakeholders should boost
girls’ and women’s access to education, to reproductive health information and services, and to protection
from domestic violence.

Key Recommendations

To
the Government of Yemen

Set the minimum age for marriage at 18 in accordance with
the definition of a child in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Raise awareness with religious leaders about the harmful
health consequences of child marriage on the lives of girls and women.

Increase and improve access to reproductive health
services and information for all girls and women, including access to
emergency obstetric care and family planning.

Develop retention strategies to ensure that girls who
enroll in school are able to remain in school, such as financial
incentives for families to keep girls in school and to subsidize the costs
of uniforms and textbooks.

Raise awareness about the obligation to register births
and marriages through the media.

To
International Donors

Advocate for programs that seek to address barriers to
girls’ education, such as subsidies for school-related costs and the
provision of safe transportation for girls to schools in rural
communities.

Support capacity-building initiatives for personnel at the
Ministries of Interior, Justice, and Health on the registration all
births, deaths, marriages, and divorce.

Methodology

This report is based on field research conducted in
Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, between August and September 2010, as well as
telephone interviews throughout 2011. In all, the researcher conducted 54
interviews. Thirty-one interviews were with girls and women who were married as
children, under the age of eighteen. Out of concern for the women’s and
girls’ privacy and security, Human Rights Watch interviewed them only at the
offices of local nongovernmental organizations and a healthcare clinic
exclusively for women. The other interviews were with a health practitioner, a
school principal, members of nongovernmental organizations, and staff members
at the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education. Human Rights Watch has
conducted a thorough review of literature on child marriage in Yemen and other
countries that show similar negative consequences on the lives of girls and
women.

Due to security concerns relating to political instability
in some regions of Yemen during the time of our research, our research was
limited to the capital; however some of the women we interviewed were from
‘Amran, Hudaida, and Hadhramawt governorates. Yemen has 21 governorates,
and the majority of its population lives in rural areas. All interviews with
girls and women were conducted in Arabic.

We have changed the names and withheld other key identifying
details of girls and women in order to protect their identities, with the
exception of one girl, Reem Al-Numeri. Reem’s marriage, which finally
ended in divorce in 2010, has been frequently featured in international media.

All participants consented to being interviewed after Human
Rights Watch informed them of the purpose of the interview and the way in which
their stories would be used and reported. Participants were informed that they
could stop the interview at any time or decline to answer specific questions.
Consent to interview girls under age 18 was granted by a parent, almost always
the mother. In some of these interviews, the mother, a female family member, or
a social worker was present during the interview. Those who travelled to meet
with us were compensated for their travel expenses, but not for providing us
with information.

I. Background

Yemen is a country of more than 23 million people on the
Arabian Peninsula. The World Bank estimated Yemen’s annual per capita
gross domestic product at US$1,060 in 2009.[1]
In 2011, Yemen ranked 154th out of 187 countries on the Human Development Index
of the United Nations Development Program.[2]
More than three quarters of Yemen’s population live in rural areas.

The majority of Yemenis are Sunni Muslims, living mostly in
southern and central Yemen, but Zaidis (a branch of Shi’a Islam) make up
a large minority living mostly in the north. Islam is the state religion.[3] There are
also small communities of Yemeni Baha’is, Christians, and Jews.[4]

Politically and socially conservative North Yemen and
Marxist South Yemen were divided prior to 1990, at which point they formally
unified. President Ali Abdullah Saleh came to power in North Yemen in 1978, and
continued as president of the Republic of Yemen after unification.[5] Saleh is
one of the world’s longest-ruling leaders. A civil war that broke out
between forces of the former north and south from May to July 1994 ended with
the victory of the north. Despite the turmoil, the development of democratic
institutions, civil society, and the rule of law continued in the 1990s.[6]

Yemen adopted a new constitution following unification. The
1991 constitution recognized that citizens “are equal in public rights
and duties,” and prohibited “discrimination between them based on sex,
color, ethnic origin, language, occupation, social status, or religion.”[7]

Further changes were made to the constitution after the 1994
war. Sharia became the source of all legislation, not just a “main”
source as before.[8]
While article 40 of Yemen’s Constitution still provides for equal rights
between men and women, article 31 undermines this premise. Article 31 reads:

Women are the sisters of men. They have rights and duties,
which are guaranteed and assigned by Sharia and stipulated by law.[9]

Since 2007, southern separatists have conducted sit-ins,
marches, and demonstrations to protest against their treatment at the hands of
the northern-dominated central government.[10]
The separatist movement continues to protest the lack of employment
opportunities, corruption, and inequitable shares of oil revenues for southern
provinces. It has demanded secession and the restoration of an independent
southern Yemeni state.[11]

In the north, a truce in February 2010 ended most of the
armed conflict that had raged in the governorate of Sa’da, along Saudi
Arabia’s border, since 2004. A group known as the Huthis, named after the
leader of the initial rebellion, Husain al-Huthi, has fought Yemeni government
forces and pro-government tribal fighters.[12]
Occasional skirmishes have continued.[13]

In January 2011, inspired by pro-democracy demonstrations in
Tunisia, Egypt, and other countries in the region, Yemenis began protests
demanding President Saleh’s resignation after 33 years in power. Starting
in February, state security forces and armed plainclothes assailants, often
acting in concert, responded to the largely peaceful protests with excessive
and deadly force, killing at least 250 demonstrators and bystanders, and
wounding thousands.

Women played an important role in anti-Saleh protests,
despite beatings, harassment, and, in some cases, the condemnation of
relatives. President Saleh in April 2011 admonished women demonstrators, saying
“divine law does not allow” public intermingling of the sexes.[14] Women
responded with further protests. In October 2011, Tawakkol Karman, a prominent
woman journalist and human rights activist who has played a pivotal role in the
protests, won the Nobel Peace Prize along with two women leaders from Liberia. In recent years, Karman has defied conservatives
in her political party Islah, or the Islamists Congregation for Reform, by
calling for a minimum age for child marriage.

In
November 2011 Saleh signed a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) brokered agreement
to cede power to vice president Abdo Rabu Mansour Hadi in exchange for immunity
from prosecution. Under the accord, Saleh was to relinquish all power before
early elections, scheduled for February 2012.

The
Status of Women and Girls

Yemen is a largely traditional clan-based society where
patriarchal attitudes still prevail. Conservative social attitudes toward women
and girls are reflected in legal discrimination.

Article 40 of Yemen’s Personal Status Law states
that a woman must obey her husband in all matters, including not leaving home
without his permission and keeping up with domestic chores.[15] Article 152 notes that
a woman may lose her right to maintenance if her husband divorces her for the
following reasons: if she refuses to move into the marital home without a
legitimate reason, if she leaves the marital home without a legitimate reason,
if she works outside the home without previously requesting her husband’s
permission, and if she refuses to travel with him without a legitimate reason.[16]

The provisions in Yemen’s Personal Status Law on
marriage and divorce create particular hardships for women and girls. According
to article 12, a man may marry up to four women provided that he is able to
treat and financially provide for his wives equally, that the wife has
knowledge of other marriages, and that the husband notifies his wife or wives
that he will take another wife.[17]
A man may divorce his wife by pronouncing his repudiation three times.[18] A woman
may ask for separation from her husband on certain conditions, for example if
the husband fails to provide financially for his family even though he is
capable of doing so; if he abandons his wife for more than one year with no
compensation, or for more than two years with compensation; if he is imprisoned
for more than three years; or if he marries more than one woman and is unable
to provide financially for his wives.[19]
The wife must provide proof of these allegations before being granted a
divorce. A wife who wishes to divorce her husband for other reasons may file
for khul’a, or no-fault divorce, under which she is required to
pay back her dowry and forego claims to maintenance.[20] Given women’s
economic dependence on their husbands, this requirement makes it difficult for
women to seek and obtain a divorce.[21]

Women’s Political and Economic Participation

Women in South Yemen won the right to vote and stand for
election in 1970, while women in North Yemen only won this right in 1983.[22] In 2006,
42 percent of registered voters were women, but only a small number ran for or
held office.[23]
Since unification, women have held no more than two out of the 301 seats in
Yemen’s House of Representatives, or parliament. Only two women have been
appointed to Yemen’s Consultative Council, the upper house of parliament,
since its establishment in 2001.[24]
Women’s representation in local councils was 0.5 percent in 2006.[25]

Women aged 15 to 64 make up only 20 percent of the
workforce, according to 2009 World Bank figures.[26] According to a
2005/2006 Yemeni government survey, the most recent data available, 35.6
percent of women work in the agricultural sector, and women make up 15.5
percent of workers in the education sector.[27]
However, more than 70 per cent of women’s work in agriculture is
conducted as unpaid family labor.[28]The agricultural sector accounts for 14-19 percent of the
gross domestic product.[29]A 2003 Yemeni family health survey showed that one-third of the women
surveyed about entering the labor force made a joint decision with their
husbands to work, 16 percent said it was their own decision, and 44 percent said
it was their husband’s decision.[30]

A survey conducted in 2000 by the Social Development Fund
and the World Bank on small and medium enterprises in Yemen showed that only 3
percent of such businesses were owned by women.[31] Out of 5,238
households surveyed, 31 percent of women worked in beauty care; 30percent in
the education field; 10 percent in the textile industry, and 7percent in
healthcare.[32]

Violence against Women and Girls

A 2002 survey of 120 women living in Sanaa found that
46percent of women in the sample experienced physical abuse while 13.3 percent
reported that they had been sexually harassed.[34]
More than 28 percent of respondents said that their husbands had confined them
in their homes at some point in their life.[35]
Additionally, 74 percent of the women surveyed also experienced verbal abuse by
their husbands.[36]A
2003 government survey on violence against women in urban and rural areas,
which covered more than 13,000 households, found that 59 percent of rural women
and 71 percent of women living in urban areas said they were physically beaten
by their husbands because of family problems. Eleven percent of rural women and
6 percent of urban women said they were beaten for not obeying their husbands,
23 percent of rural and 16 percent of urban women were beaten by their husbands
for no reason, and 7 percent of women in both categories said they were beaten
for reasons other than those listed above.[37]

According to a report submitted by Yemeni NGOs to the CEDAW
(Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women)
committee —the UN expert group that monitors implementation of CEDAW)
— in 2007, “domestic violence in cases related to honor is [a]
concealed phenomenon in Yemen.”[38]
The report noted that families handled such cases internally and little
information reached police stations.[39]
The murder of women by family members was often not officially reported or was
recorded as natural deaths.[40]
In rural areas, a death certificate citing the cause of death is not always
necessary for burial.[41]

The prevalence of female genital mutilation is much higher
in the coastal and southern regions (with the exception of Aden) of Yemen than
in other areas. A national survey conducted by the Yemeni government in 2003
found that 33.1 percent of girls and women between 15 and 49 in urban areas,
and 40.7 percent in rural areas had their genitalia cut, mostly in their first few
months of life.[42]

Literacy and Access to Education

Yemen has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the Middle
East and North Africa. A survey commissioned by the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) found that as of 2007, the adult
literacy rate for Yemenis aged 15 and over was 59 percent: 77 percent for males
and 40 percent for females. There was a gap of over 30 percent between
Yemen’s literacy rate and that of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates,
and Oman, where the literacy rates were 85 percent, 90 percent, and 84 percent,
respectively.[43]
The youth literacy rate for those between 15 and 24 was significantly higher
than the adult literacy rate, estimated at 80 percent. But the gap between the
literacy rates for male youths aged 15 to 24 and for female youths in the same
age bracket remained wide (93 percent for the former and 67 percent for the
latter).[44]

The improvement in literacy rates for youths may be due to
the fact that in 2001 education in Yemen became compulsory for both boys and
girls between the ages of six and fifteen.[45]
But despite this progress, approximately 900,000 primary school age children
were out of school in 2005. Almost 70 percent of these were girls, and 88
percent of them lived in rural areas.[46]
According to UNESCO’s 2010 global monitoring report on education, the net
primary school enrollment rate for boys in 2005was 85 percent, but only 65
percent for girls.[47]
The discrepancies between the enrollment rates of girls and boys widens in
secondary grades.[48]

Numerous explanations have been put forward for the wide gap
in enrolment rates for boys and girls. Some families withdraw girls from school
to marry, to help with household chores, or to care for smaller children. Additionally,
many families in rural areas insist on having separate classrooms for boys and
girls, and female teachers for girls, in order to keep their girls in school. Some
families in rural areas wish for their girls to remain in school after they
reach puberty so long as female teachers are available to teach them. Many
families feel that having female teachers will ensure that girls have a safe
environment, and also value female teachers as a role model since
teaching is a respected profession.[49]
The ratio of female to male teachers in elementary education is 12: 100 in
rural areas. In secondary schools, the ratio is 8-11 females to 100 male
teachers.[50]UNICEF
has also found that girls’ education is impeded by families’ lack
of awareness about the importance of education, especially for girls.[51]

A school principal from Hudaida told Human Rights Watch:

Most girls are taken out of school after
fourth or fifth grade [around nine or ten years], just when they become
adolescents and begin puberty. The girls return to the home, they cook, fetch
water and wood, or are married off if there is an opportunity.[52]

Kawkab, who cut short her secondary education when she was married,
told Human Rights Watch:

I used to like school, especially
English. I wanted to teach English, but my family made me enter the house and
the kitchen.[53]

Twenty-one-year-old Arwa finished elementary school, but her
family did not allow her to go to secondary school. Instead, she cared for her
younger siblings. She said:

I used to like going to school...I was sad when my mother
forced me to leave. I wanted to be a doctor.[54]

Some parents regard girls’ education as a waste of
time and money, believing that a girl’s place and future is in the home.
In 2006, the Ministry of Education abolished the annual school fee for primary
education of 640 riyals (approximately US$3) to encourage more girls to enroll
in school, especially in rural areas.[55]
Other fees for mandatory uniforms and school activities still exist, impacting
girls’ access to education.[56]
Ahmad Ayadil, a school principal, remarked, “Girls are
intelligent and more receptive to education [than boys], but they’re not
given a chance.”[57]

II. Child Marriage and Government Failure to Protect Girls and Women

Child Marriage Around the World

Worldwide, more than 51 million girls between the ages of 15
and 19 are married. This figure is based on demographic health surveys
conducted in various countries around the world that document marriages of
persons above 15 years. The total figure for child marriage is certainly higher
because these official statistics do not survey married girls who are under 15.[58] The
Population Council, an international organization that conducts research on
HIV/AIDS, gender, and poverty and youth in order to improve reproductive health
services, noted that according to the 2006 Demographic Health Surveys, one in
seven girls worldwide would marry before her 15th birthday.[59]

The majority of these young girls live in parts of
sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, often in places characterized by persistent
poverty and low levels of economic development.[60] Child marriage is
especially common in countries where the majority of the population live on
less than US$2 per day, and in countries with a low gross domestic product
(GDP) per capita.[61]
Research conducted by international organizations found that child marriage was
also common in societies in which families premised their “honor”
on daughters’ virginity before marriage, leading to early marriages of
daughters to prevent premarital sex.[62]

Child Marriage in Yemen

Child marriage is a common practice in Yemen in both rural
and urban areas. Girls may be married as early as 12 or 13, especially if the
girl is wedded to a close relative. In rural areas, such as Hadhramawt and
Hudaida, girls may be married as young as eight, and in Mukalla around 10. The
age of marriage in urban areas is slightly higher.[63] Of the 31 girls and
women Human Rights Watch interviewed in Sanaa, all but one were married between
the ages of 12 and 17, with the majority married before age 15.

In 2005, Yemen ranked 14th (tied with Liberia) on a list of
20 worldwide “hot spots” for child marriage compiled by the
International Center for Research on Women, with 48.4 percent of girls married
before reaching the age of 18.[64]
According to the Yemeni government and UNICEF 2006 Multiple Indicator Cluster
Survey, a nationally representative survey of 3,586 households, almost 52
percent of Yemeni girls were married before the age of 18 and14 percent were
married before the age of 15.[65]

Our research and that of many other experts and
organizations underscores that child marriage deprives girls of their childhood
and adolescence by burdening them with marriage, childbirth, and other adult
responsibilities. It curtails their personal freedom and denies them the
opportunity to develop a full sense of identity. It risks harming their
physical health, including their reproductive and sexual health, and increases
their risk of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of husbands and
in-laws. Lastly, it often denies them the opportunity to access education,
leaving them economically vulnerable, unable to earn a living.[66] The negative
consequences of child marriage are not limited to the girls’ childhood but,
as this report shows, can persist throughout their adult lives too.

A 2005 study on child marriage in Yemen explained that there
are four principle factors that place girls at risk of child marriage in Yemen
and in similar countries where child marriage is common. First, many very poor
families view young girls as a financial burden, prompting them to marry their
daughters off to alleviate that burden. Second, some families also see their
daughters as an economic asset because of the payment of a dowry, in the form
of money or gifts offered to the bride by the groom prior to marriage.[67] According
to article 33 of Yemen’s Personal Status Law, a dowry is a woman’s
possession and she can do whatever she pleases with it.[68] However, article 34
notes that a woman’s guardian may ask to accelerate or delay her dowry
payment so long as she is in agreement.[69]
Marrying an older man often means a higher dowry, especially if the girl is
young. Some families believe that marrying their daughters is a means of
providing her with a more secure future. Parents who are unable to financially
provide for their children believe that by marrying them they give their
daughters a chance for a better life and better prospects for the future.

Third, in traditional societies like Yemen, marriage can
also be regarded by the family as a means of protecting girls from pre-marital
sex, which would undermine family honor.[70]

And lastly, sometimes girls themselves see marriage as their
only option, especially those who leave school at an early age. Fifteen-year-old
Sawsan from Hudaida told us:

I only went to school until I was ten
years old. I used to like to read and write. My [future] husband wanted me [for
marriage] and everyone agreed in the family, so I agreed. I wanted to get
married because it’s better than nothing.[71]

Girls who were not married at an early age
often found it difficult to get married when they were older.[72] Fawzia told Human Rights Watch:

People here say that if a girl
doesn’t get married by 20, she loses her chance at marriage.[73]

Government
Failure to Protect Children from Child Marriage

The government of Yemen has failed to protect children from
child marriage by not setting and enforcing a clear minimum age for marriage,
and by failing to provide women and girls with protection from, forced
marriages and marital abuse, or to provide them with opportunities for redress.
In fact, the government made matters worse by repealing the previous legal age
of 15 for marriage in 1999, making it legal for a child of any age to be
married.

Birth and marriage registrations are essential components of
combating child marriage, as they provide proof of the age of the child at the
time of marriage. Registration of births and marriages in Yemen is compulsory,
but rarely enforced.[74]

Another problem is that conflicting ages of majority in
Yemen’s Personal Status Law and civil law render the definition of a
child in Yemen inconsistent (see below), making it difficult to legally protect
children’s human rights as stipulated by international human rights law.

Minimum Age for Marriage and Current
Legal Developments

Prior to unification in 1990, North Yemen’s Personal
Status Law set the minimum age for marriage at 15.In the south, it was 16. In
1994, 15 became the age of marriage for all of Yemen.

In 1999, further changes to the Personal Status Law
occurred. A provision allowing forcibly married girls to divorce while
maintaining their right to maintenance was repealed.[75] Another amendment
ostensibly protected married girls from being forced into sex by stipulating
that the husband cannot have sexual intercourse with his bride “until she
has reached puberty, even if she exceeds 15 years of age.”[76]However,
the law only takes a girl’s physical ability to have sex into account,
rather than her physical, mental, and emotional maturity to handle a sexual
relationship, childbirth, and child-rearing. In practice Yemeni girls are often
married immediately after puberty, whether this occurs at 11, 12, or older. In
some cases documented by Human Rights Watch, girls were married before their
first menstrual period.

Since 2000, the Women’s National Committee (WNC), a
government body tasked with recommending policies and strategies for the
development of women’s health and education, has sought to
re-introduce a minimum age for marriage, without success.[77]

In 2008 Nujood Ali, who was married at the age of nine to a
man in his thirties, became the youngest known divorcee in Yemen, at the age
of10.[78]Her
husband repeatedly beat and raped her, until one day she decided to go to a
courthouse to speak to a judge. With the assistance of a lawyer, Shada Nasser,
Nujood was granted a divorce, but had to repay her husband US$200. Her husband
was not penalized for abusing or raping her.[79]
Nujood’s case highlighted the sexual abuse and domestic violence some
married Yemeni girls experience. After Nujood broke her silence about her
marriage, more young girls came forward demanding a divorce from their husbands
for similar reasons. In addition, nongovernmental organizations and local media
also began to highlight cases of violence against young married girls.
Nujood’s story captured international attention and prompted the WNC to
present amendments to Yemen’s Supreme Council for Women’s Affairs
in 2008, which is headed by the Prime Minister. The Supreme Council attempted
to introduce a draft bill to set an age for marriage, but the Sharia
legislative committee in parliament rejected such a proposal. The WNC advocated
for amendments specifying 18 as the minimum age for marriage.
According to Hooria Mashoor, former deputy director of the WNC, “extreme
groups in society and in parliament that are against amending the law”
prevented the amendments from being tabled for parliamentary debate.[80]

In February 2009, the WNC again presented draft legislation
on child marriage, specifying a minimum age for marriage at 18, to the Supreme
Council for Women’s Affairs, which then submitted it to the Council of
Ministers. The Council of Ministers, which serves as the supreme executive and
administrative authority of the state, agreed on the WNC draft legislation and
submitted it to the Ministry of Justice, which then submitted it to parliament.[81]

On February 11, 2009, a majority in parliament agreed to set
the minimum age of marriage at 17, instead of the proposed 18.[82] The parliamentarians also
drafted an exception allowing girls under 17 to marry if a judge deemed it to
be in the best interest of the child. Any adult who violated the law would be
penalized with a jail sentence of up to a year, or a fine of up to 100,000
riyals (approximately US$469), and any person who witnessed the marriage of
children, female or male, under the indicated age, would also be penalized with
a jail sentence of no more than six months and a fine of no more than 50,000
riyals (approximately US$234).[83]

Twenty-three parliamentarians from the powerful opposition
party Islah and from the ruling General People’s Congress (GPC) opposed
the amended article on the grounds that setting a minimum age
for marriage was against their interpretation of Islamic principles.[84]

A majority of parliamentarians voted in favor of setting the
age of marriage at 17, but proponents failed to muster a majority for
provisions dealing with the punishment of parents or guardians who give their
daughters into marriage before the prescribed age. A few days
after the vote, parliamentarians opposing the reform requested further review
by the Sharia Legislative Committee, which reviews drafts laws to ensure
agreement with Sharia law, recommending that no age for marriage should
be set.[85]

In March 2010, parliamentarians again tabled the draft bill
for debate. The same conservative members of parliament voiced sharp criticism,
and the draft bill was again referred to the Sharia Legislative Committee.[86] On April
10, 2010, the Sharia Legislative Committee issued a 14 page document citing
religious reasons for not setting an age of marriage. The document stated that
article 15 is in contradiction to the Quran, Sunnah, the Constitution, and the
interest of the child.[87]
This maneuver effectively killed the bill for this session of parliament.

On March 21, 2010 a number of clerics issued a fatwa (a
legal pronouncement in Islam, issued by a religious law specialist on a
specific issue), which stated that defining an age for marriage is contrary to
Sharia and that “God had legitimized marriage to safeguard births and
their protection.”[88]
The fatwa included evidence of instances where prominent women in Islam
were married at a young age, specifically Aisha, one of the Prophet
Muhammad’s wives. Those opposing the law on minimum age for marriage
claim she married at the age of nine, but other Muslim scholars put her age at
marriage closer to 20. The dispute results from different interpretations of
the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (Hadith) and his companions, which
Islamic law takes to be normative.

Two days after the fatwa appeared women opposing a
minimum age of marriage demonstrated in front of parliament. They were
countered by demonstrators in favor of a minimum age. Many of those who opposed
the bill were from al-Iman (Faith) University, financed and run by Sheikh Abdul
Majidal-Zindani. Al-Zindani is one of the founding members of
Islah. The Islah party was formed in 1990 by members of the GPC and by the
Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood. The GPC and Islah share tribal influence and
personal connections to businesses, and are both rivals of the Yemeni Socialist
Party, from the former south. Today, Islah is the leading opposition group in
Yemen, and its party ideology has shifted from one focusing on religious and
moral issues to one much more accepting of a democratic system, and secular
political parties. Rifts within the party have brought about two competing
camps: one which is moderate, and another which is Salafi, or hard-line
Islamist.[89] Al-Zindani has strong views on the exclusion of women from senior
governmental positions, and other issues pertaining to women, including child
marriage.[90]
His argument against a law banning child marriage is that it is un-Islamic and
a threat to the culture and society of Yemen.[91]

In October 2010 parliamentary proponents and opponents
clashed verbally and physically over the draft law during a parliamentary
session.[92]
This time the debate was about whether or not to punish guardians who marry
their daughters before puberty.[93]

Many countries in the Middle East and North Africa region
are predominantly Muslim, and a majority of these countries recognize Sharia as
a source of law. Almost all have set a minimum age for marriage for both boys
and girls. For instance, in Iraq and Egypt the age is 18 for both sexes. In
2008, Egypt raised the age for girls from 16 to 18.[94]

Birth
and Marriage Registrations

Birth and marriage registrations are essential components of
combating child marriage as they assist in proving the age of the spouses at
the time of marriage. Mandatory marriage registration, which is the case in
Yemen, can help prevent unlawful child marriages. In 2006 only 22 percent of
births were registered, despite compulsory registration.[95]The Yemen Statistics
Yearbook for 2009, compiled by the Central Statistical Organization, showed
that for 20 governorates, 9,120 marriages were recorded in 2001, 10,934 for
2002, and only 600 marriages for 2003.[96]Considering
that Yemen has a population of 23 million, it is obvious that the number of actual
marriages far exceed those recorded.

According to the presidential decree on civil status and
civil registration, amended in 2003, all births must be registered with the
Ministry of Health within 60 days. Similarly, all marriage contracts must be registered
at the Ministry of Justice within 15 days. The registrations are then sent to
the Department of Civil Status at the Ministry of Interior.[97] Article 14 of the Personal
Status Law also requires that the person who draws up a marriage contract, the
husband, and the wife’s guardian register the marriage certificate with
the specialized entity within one month. The certificate must include necessary
information, such as the ages of bride and groom, their national identification
numbers, if available, and the amount of dowry offered to the bride.[98]

But births and marriages are rarely registered, and there
are no penalties imposed on those who do not comply with the law.[99] This
inadequate enforcement of legal provisions coupled with lack of awareness about
the importance of registering births and marriages has resulted in difficulties
in gathering accurate data on Yemen’s population, and determining the
ages of children.

Definition
of a Child

A precise legal definition of a child is essential to ensure
a coherent application of laws protecting children. In Yemeni law, there is no
single legal definition of a child. Article 2 of the Law on the Rights of the
Child defines a child as “every human being below the age of 18 years
unless majority is attained earlier.”[100]
According to Yemen’s Personal Status Law, the age of maturity (sin al
rushud) for boys is set at ten, or the attainment of puberty, whichever is
earlier, and for girls, at nine years, or the attainment of puberty, and in all
cases, any person over 15 years is considered to have reached age of maturity.[101] However,
Yemen’s civil law (Qanun al-Madani) sets the age of maturity at
the age of 15 years, with no exceptions.[102]
Without a coherent definition of a child throughout Yemeni law, children may
not fully enjoy the protection of their rights under international law.

III. Child
Marriage: A Violation of Girls’ and
Women’s Rights

Child marriages result in serious violations of the rights
of girls with long-lasting consequences. Girls and women who are forced into
marriage are deprived of the right to decide whether or not to marry, whom to
marry, when to marry, and whether and when to have children.

Child marriages also contribute to violations of
girls’ and women’s other rights, including the rights to health,
education, employment, and the right to live free from violence and
discrimination.

Full and Free Consent to Marriage

The right of men and women to enter into marriage only with
their full and free consent is well established in international human rights
law.[103]
Articles 16 of CEDAW and the Universal Declaration for Human Rights (UDHR),
article 23 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),
and the UN Convention on Consent to Marriage recognize people’s right to
marry when both spouses are able to consent to a marriage.[104]These treaties
consider children as incapable of consenting to marriage because they are
unable to fully understand the concept of marriage and a sexual relationship
within marriage and its consequences.[105]A
sexual relationship within marriage can be especially dangerous in places like
Yemen where the law does not recognize marital rape as a criminal offense and
thus facilitates sexual abuse.

Older children have the right to participate in decisions
about their lives and may have the capacity to grasp the implications of
marriage.[106]In
Yemen, however, a girl’s consent to marriage is frequently neither sought
nor considered. Article 23 of the Personal Status Law provides that a
previously married woman or a widow, in other words a non-virgin, must consent
to marriage, however, according to the law, a virgin’s silence signifies
her consent.[107]Yemen’s
Personal Status Law allows girls to be married at any age and further
discriminates against girls and women by not requiring their full and free
consent for marriage. The decision to marry is often made by the girl’s
or woman’s guardian, as some of the cases described below indicate.

In cases when girls do agree to marry, they may not be aware
of the implications of marriage or able to make an informed decision.
Eighteen-year-old Su’ad was married when she was 14. She told Human
Rights Watch:

I only finished second grade. I
didn’t like school and quit, so my mother told me to sit in the kitchen.
My uncle asked me if I want to marry this person and I said ‘yes,’
but I didn’t know what marriage was. I met my husband for the first time
on our wedding night.[108]

Reflecting back on
her marriage at age 13 or 14 shortly after her first menstrual period, Bushra,
who is now 26 years old, told Human Rights Watch:

I was young to get married... I wanted to get married then...
[but] my mind was too little.[109]

The question of whether a girl is capable of providing her
full and free consent to marriage becomes more complex as she grows older. However,
even older girls are not always able to make an informed decision about
marriage. Salma was 17 years old with only one year of secondary school left
when she decided to marry a man she did not know. When we
asked her why she decided to marry when she was so close to finishing school,
she told Human Rights Watch: “I didn’t know my husband beforehand.
He came and I said ‘yes’.” Her mother who was present during
Salma’s interview told us, “She wasn’t really prepared [to
get married], and now she’s one month pregnant.[110]

Even when girls are mature enough to understand and consent
to marriage, they are not always asked whether they want to get married, and
they may have no say in choosing their future spouse. They may not even know
the person they are to marry, and only meet their spouse for the first time on
their wedding night. Their families—fathers or other male
relatives—choose their future husbands for them. Arwa
was married when she was 15 years old. Now 21, she told Human Rights
Watch:

More than half of the women and girls interviewed by Human
Rights Watch said they had no choice in choosing their spouse.[112] Sultana was married
at 16, in 2009. She told us:

I finished seventh grade, and left
[school] because of marriage....I didn’t want to get married, but my
father forced me to. He told me that education won’t do anything for me.
He said ‘get married and live in splendor’....I didn’t know
my husband beforehand. My father told me that I have to agree [to get
married]... I had no choice.[113]

Similarly, 25-year-old Amal, who was married
when she was 15, explained:

The girl is put under an imposition, and
there’s no benefit in making trouble.[114]

Sometimes, the
girl’s marriage contract is concluded without her knowledge. Another
woman, Kawkab, told Human Rights Watch that she was married at 16, explaining:

I didn’t want to get married...but
the decision was stringent....My father and father-in-law went to court, and my
father came back to the house and told me “You’re married.” I
was surprised, I knew that I would be married one day, but I didn’t know
that this would be the day.[115]

Sexual
and Reproductive Health, Maternal and Child Mortality

In traditional societies where child marriage is common,
including Yemen, girls and women are expected to become pregnant soon after
marriage. There are serious risks to the health and lives of young mothers and
their children associated with early pregnancy and childbirth. These increased
risks are not only related to age, but also to girls’ low levels of
education, low social status, lack of access to health related information, and
health services.[116]

Worldwide, it is estimated that complications from pregnancy
are the leading cause of death for young women between 15 and 19. Studies show
that girls in their teens are twice as likely to die from pregnancy and
childbirth related causes,[117]
Young girls between the ages of 10 and 14 are five times more likely to die
during delivery than mothers who are between 20 and 24.[118]

Yemen has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in
the Middle East and North Africa region, estimated at 210 deaths per 100,000
live births.[119]
Maternal mortality in Yemen is the cause of approximately 39 percent of all
deaths for women of reproductive age, and child marriage is an important
factor.[120]Government
data indicate that 74.2 percent of all maternal deaths occur in cases of girls
or women who were married before they reached 20 years old.[121] Most deaths occur in
rural areas, where girls are more likely to be married at a younger age and
where 80 percent of Yemen’s population lives.[122] It is estimated that
18 percent of maternal deaths in Yemen occur during pregnancy and 82 percent
during delivery.[123]
Sixty four percent of maternal deaths occur at home, and without the presence
of a skilled birth attendant.[124]
The majority of pregnant women in Yemen (almost 80 percent) deliver at home.[125]
Home deliveries in rural areas are especially risky, where long distances
between homes and health facilities make it difficult for women to access
emergency obstetric care. Even when emergency care is available, it is often
not timely or adequate as most health facilities have a shortage of staff and
supplies.[126]
Nine percent of maternal deaths occur en route to a hospital, and 24 percent
occur at a health facility. It is estimated that 38 percent of women in labor arrive
at a hospital in critical or morbid condition.[127]

Studies on other countries show that women who marry early
have the highest proportion of unfavorable pregnancy outcomes at all stages
throughout their childbearing years.[128]One study indicated women who married before age 16 carried twice
the risk of spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) and approximately four times the
combined risk of fetal death and infant mortality.[129]

Amal, who is 25 years old and from Haima, was married when
she was 15 and had her only daughter when she was 17. She told Human Rights
Watch that she’s been pregnant six times. She miscarried three times, and
had two abortions. “One baby died inside of me when it
was six months old,” she said. “The other baby ... they took him
out of my stomach and he was already dead.”[130]

Seventeen-year-old Sultana was married at
16 and was pregnant when we met her.
She said:

I miscarried once when I was two months
pregnant, then I got pregnant again after four months, and I miscarried when I
was five months. This is my third pregnancy... A woman here is only for
reproduction.[131]

According to the organization Save the
Children young girls who marry early are more likely to have frequent, and
often closely spaced, pregnancies. Household responsibilities, and other
factors that may cause stress and anxiety, may further aggravate the negative
outcome of pregnancies.[132]

Girls who are undernourished may be at an increased risk of
anemia resulting from deficiencies of vital nutrients such as iron, vitamin A,
or folic acid.[133]
It is often difficult for young girls whose lives are to a large extent
controlled by their husbands and unsympathetic in-laws to advocate for adequate
food and nutrition for themselves. If they become pregnant while still in their
adolescence, lack of adequate nutrition places babies at risk of low birth
weight.[134]
The low status of young mothers, gender-based violence, and discrimination
against them in the home may limit their access to reproductive and sexual
health services and information, even in cases of emergency.[135]

The low social status of young married
girls and their lack of empowerment in the household severely limit their
ability to make decisions about their own health and the health of their
children.[136]Najla
did not know exactly how old she is, but she said that she was married soon
after completing her second year in secondary school, which would have made her
about 15 or 16 at the time of her marriage. She has been married for seven
years and has two children who were likely born before she was 18 years old.
She explained how she was denied medical treatment by her in-laws.

I was pregnant with the second child when
my firstborn was only five months old. For five days, I bled severely and I
thought it was just my period. My mother-in-law knew what was happening to me,
but she wouldn’t tell me anything. They [my in-laws] wouldn’t let
me go to the hospital and wouldn’t tell my husband what was going on with
me. When I became very dizzy, they finally took me to the hospital, but at the
hospital they didn’t stop the bleeding and didn’t give me any
treatment. I had to lie on my back for six months during my [second] pregnancy
and I needed 500 cc of blood. The doctor told me it’s because I married
early.[137]

Women requiring emergency obstetric care may be denied
admission to the hospital if they lack the authorization of their male
guardians, most often their husbands. Yemen’s Ministry of Health has
found that advance permission from the husband to access health care at a
medical center is one of the major obstacles to treatment, including emergency
treatment.[138]
These authorizations are a common practice although not a legal requirement in
Yemen.[139]

Early pregnancy and childbirth also have adverse
consequences for infants. Babies born to young mothers run a 30-percent
increased risk of dying during their first year of life.[140] Babies may have a low
birth weight as a consequence of their mother’s poor nutritional status
while pregnant, and babies with low birth weight are 5 to 30 times more likely
to die than babies of normal weight. Young mothers are less
likely to get prenatal care and often do not have enough information about
proper nutrition while pregnant to nurture themselves and babies.[141]

Many girls interviewed by Human Rights Watch, especially
younger ones, had little or no knowledge about sexual intercourse before they
were married. Neither their mothers, older sisters, nor other female relatives
told them what to expect on their wedding night. Sultana, who was married at
16, said, “My brother and sister told me some things
about the wedding night, but not everything.”[142] Husnia,
married at 16, told Human Rights Watch:

In Yemen, like in many societies around the
world where family honor is predicated on the “honor” of daughters,
girls are expected to be virgins when they marry. Often, therefore, discussions
about sex are taboo, and girls have limited or no knowledge about family
planning, including the use of contraceptives.[144]

Human Rights Watch asked Fatima, who was
married at 12, about her use of contraceptives, and she replied:

I slept with my husband, but I don’t
take birth control pills. I don’t know what they are.”[145]

In Yemen only 28 percent of married women
between the ages of 15 and 49 stated that they use some form of contraception,
making this rate one of the lowest in the Middle East and North Africa.[146]
In 2003, the most recent year for which such information is available, 39
percent of Yemeni women who did not wish to become pregnant did not use any
form of contraception.[147]
In some cases, women may be prevented by their husbands from using any form of
contraception, and from obtaining information on contraception, the spacing of
children, or other reproductive health issues.[148]

Sexual Violence, Domestic Abuse,
and Abandonment

The World Health Organization (WHO) found in a multi-country
survey on violence against women that married girls between 15 and 19 are more
likely to experience domestic violence than older married women.[149]

Some of the girls and women interviewed by Human Rights
Watch said that they were verbally or physically assaulted by their husbands,
in-laws, and other members of the husband’s household. Married girls and
women in Yemen often live with their husband, his parents, male siblings and
their wives, children, and unwed sisters. Power and authority in the household
is usually held by men and older women, and this can place new brides,
especially if they are young, at greater risk of abuse and violence.[150]

Rhadia was married at 16, and has lived
with her husband and in-laws for over eight years. She told Human Rights Watch
that only her children keep her in a marriage that has made her life
“full of sadness and bitterness.” She told us that she is abused by
her husband and in-laws:

He upsets me a lot, and he beats me. One
day he beat me because of his mother. She tells him that I don’t do
anything at home. I had problems [with my husband and in-laws] when I first had
my son, but I can’t leave now because of my children...They [my family
and in-laws] ruined me. They ruined my life.[151]

Twenty-three year-old Huda, from Ma’reb, was married
when she was 14. She said:

I refused to get married ... I used to
escape from the house and return to my family. I didn’t want to stay
there [at her husband’s home]. They [her in-laws] used to give me a hard
time. I would do all the housework.[152]

Su’ad, who is 18 and lives with her
in-laws, said:

I was young and went to a big house.
I didn’t know how to cook or do anything. They [husband’s family]
would yell at me....One day my sister-in-law hit me because I was yelling at
her children to get up.[153]

Afrah is 16 years old and had been married
for five months when she spoke to Human Rights Watch. Her husband is 18 years
old. She said:

My mother-in-law gives us problems. From
the first day, there were problems. She says that I took her son away from her.
His mother chose me ... and now she doesn’t want me anymore. She
wants us to divorce. I’m three months pregnant. I don’t know if
they [my husband and in-laws] will take him [the baby] from me.... His mother
encouraged him to leave me and to marry again. He’s fine with it.
It’s normal for him because he’s young and has a lot of time. He
doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong. They want us to get
a divorce and I don’t know how I will live later with my baby.[154]

Fourteen-year-old Fatima was married to a man in his late
twenties who lived in the same house with her husband’s mother, brothers,
and sister. She told us:

I used to argue with my mother-in-law
because she says I can’t do anything. He [her husband] hit me once with
his hand on the left side of my face and on the right side of my face and
ruptured my ear. He used to hit me all over my body, he used to kick me with
his feet and call me all sorts of names. I used to remain silent, but would
complain to my mother. She would tell me to remain tolerant, all girls go
through the same, this is nothing new. Since he hit me, I want to divorce him.[155]

The lack of a support system may exacerbate the
vulnerability of married girls.Sometimes girls who are
married young, and those who are forced into marriage, cannot find support and
assistance in their own families. Girls may run away from their husbands and
attempt to go back to their own families’ homes, expecting
to receive help, but are often told to endure their tribulations because
all married women must tolerate their husbands, their in-laws, and their
children.

Thuraya is 27 years old. She was married when she was about
16 or 17 years old. She told Human Rights Watch:

I would go back to my father’s house
and my family would tell me that these are normal problems. They would say that
a woman has to have patience and would return me to my husband’s home as
if I was wrong, and I would think that maybe I was wrong after all. I would be
quiet ... just to avoid problems.[156]

WHO also found that married girls and young women with
low levels of education are at a greater risk of physical and sexual violence
from their spouses than older and more educated women.[157] Research suggests
that spousal age difference also contributes to risk factors associated with
violence and abuse, including marital rape.[158]

Reem, 14, was married at age 11 to a man 21 years her
senior, had not had her first menstrual period when she was married. Reem did
not want to have sex with her husband, but he raped her. She said, “He
wanted to sleep with me by force.”[159]

As in most countries in the Middle East and North Africa,
rape within marriage is not legally recognized as a crime in Yemen.[160] Coerced
or non-consensual sex can have particularly long-lasting physical and mental
health consequences for young girls because they are still at a formative stage
of social and psychological development, shaping their identities and
perspectives. Mental health implications may include a sense of worthlessness,
depression, and suicidal thoughts.[161]

Reem slit her wrists in an attempt to commit suicide. She
said:

They [her husband and in-laws] used to beat me. I took a mousse
[razor] and cut my wrists. I bled and became weak, and then fell to the
floor.[162]

Marital rape may result in unintended and unwanted
pregnancy, sexually-transmitted infections, injuries, and even death. In March
2010, Elham Mahdi Al-Assi, aged 12, died of internal bleeding three days after
she was married. Elham was married to a man twice her age. Medical reports
indicate that Elham died from severe bleeding caused by tears to her genital
and anal area from sexual activity. According to the Associated Press,
Elham’s mother said that her daughter complained to her that her husband
tied her up and raped her.[163]
According to a United Nations 2010 assessment on violence against women in
Yemen, hospitals receive many girls who have been subjected to severe injuries
resulting from forced sex, but hospitals rarely report these incidents to local
authorities.[164]

Other Physical and Psychological Health
Consequences

Everything in my body aches, everything
from head to toe. I have headaches, my stomach hurts,
my back, and my knees, and I have infections.

—Zahra, 26 and a mother of five; married when she was
13 or 14, Sanaa, September 6, 2010[165]

Child marriage can have severe consequences for the physical
and psychological health of girls, particularly younger girls, and these
consequences may impact women throughout their life. Girls and women are often
confined to the home and are expected to take on household work and care for
their families, including their in-laws. Girls may be isolated from friends and
family, may rarely have anyone to share their concerns with, and may find themselves
regularly surrounded by people who ignore or condone their suffering.[166]

Ramzia, 39, and originally from
Ma’reb, was married when she was 15 years old. She has eight sons aged
between two to 22. She told Human Rights Watch:

My life has been about raising [children],
pregnancies, cooking and cleaning. When night time comes, it’s almost
like I’m dead.[167]

Fathiya is 30 years old and the mother of seven children.
She told Human Rights Watch:

I was 12 years old when I got married. I
was a child. They oppressed me by marrying me. All that I’m good for is
to be a mother and a home maker.... I’m illiterate. They didn’t
teach us anything. If they did, at least I would have benefitted from
something. I didn’t know anything about marriage, how to be a mother...I
wasn’t thinking about anything. I get upset at myself. I get upset at my
father. I get upset from my husband. I have constant headaches and I
don’t feel like even speaking. I feel like someone is choking me.
There’s so much heaviness on my chest. [168]

Access
to Education

The majority of the women we interviewed could not read or
write. Some had never attended school while others left school after two or
three years of basic education. Almost all of those who had attended school
were forced to leave their education to get married. Radhia,
who was married at 16, told Human Rights Watch:

My family took me out of school, and my
husband said that he doesn’t need me in school.[169]

It is rare for girls who marry to return to
school.[170]
Afrah was 16 years old and had been married for five months when she spoke to
Human Rights Watch. She said:

I completed the first year of intermediate
school, and I left to get married. I wanted to continue school, so I wanted to
get engaged for three years. But I was only engaged for eight months and my
father insisted that I get married. I wanted to go to college, to become a
lawyer, but there’s no chance now because I’m going to have a baby.[171]

Most of those women and girls interviewed by Human Rights
Watch who attended school enjoyed learning and expressed regrets for missing
the opportunity to complete their education. Research also shows that the
removal of girls from school often denies them the opportunity to develop their
intellect and their own independent identities.[172] Magda, 21, was married
when she was 14. She said:

I reached sixth grade, and left school to
get married. Now, when I see my daughter, I say to myself who’s going to
teach her because I can’t. I understood it now when I got older [the
value of education].[173]

Demographic and fertility studies have shown that the number
of years a girl attends school is directly linked to the postponement of
marriage, and therefore the postponement of childbearing.[174]Education
enables girls to acquire better skills and enter the labour force. They become
more financially independent and better able to choose to delay marriage.
Additionally, postponing marriage increases the likelihood that women have
children later when they have a better chance of surviving pregnancy and are
able to better care for children. Studies have also shown that girls who
continue their education are more likely to invest in the education of their
children.[175]
The organization Save the Children has found that higher levels of education
also contribute to an increased use of contraception and reduced rate of infant
mortality.[176]

Maha, who is originally from Taizz, is in her twenties. All
of her siblings, including four sisters and two brothers, went to school. She
got married when she was 16, but waited to have her first child until she
completed secondary school. Her husband encouraged her to continue with her
education after childbirth and she still hopes to finish her studies and become
a pharmacist. She said her education put her in a much better position to
understand her reproductive health and nutrition for her infant. When we asked
about her access to healthcare information when she was pregnant, she told us,
“The nurse told me about breastfeeding and nutrition,
and I used to read a lot.”[177]

IV. International Legal Obligations on
Child Marriage

Yemen is a party to the key international treaties that
protect women’s and girls’ human rights. In 1984 Yemen ratified the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW)[178]
and in 1987 the Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and
Registration of Marriage,[179]
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),[180]
and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(ICESCR).[181]
In 1991, Yemen ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).[182]

Child
Marriage as Harmful and Discriminatory

Child marriage is recognized under international law as a
human rights violation. Since the vast majority of those subjected to child
marriage are girls, it is considered a form of gender-based discrimination, and
it violates other human rights principles.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child does not
explicitly address child marriage. However, child marriage is viewed as
incompatible with a number of the articles in the convention. These include the
age at which a person is considered a child, the right to non-discrimination,
the protection of best interest of the child, the rights to life, survival, and
development, the right to be protected from all forms of violence and sexual
abuse, the rights to health, education, and the right of the child to express
his or her views.[183]
CEDAW states explicitly in article 16 that the marriage or betrothal of child
should have no legal effect.[184]
On a regional level, the African Union has included a prohibition on child
marriage in its human rights instruments.[185]

The Committee on the Rights of the Child, or CRC committee,
the treaty body tasked with monitoring the implementation of the CRC, has
commented frequently on child marriage and has expressed its concern about the
persistence of child marriages around the world, including Yemen. [186]
The CRC committee and the CEDAW committee have urged governments, including
Yemen, to take immediate steps to eradicate the practice.[187] In July 2008, the
CEDAW committee expressed its “extreme” concern about the 1999
amendment to article 15 of Yemen’s Personal Status Law, abolishing the
minimum age of 15 for marriage, and noted that this represents a “clear
setback for women’s rights … and a serious violation of the State
party’s obligations under the Convention.”[188] It continued:

…the Committee remains deeply concerned at the
‘legality’ of such early marriages of girl children, some as young
as eight years of age, which amounts to violence against them, creates a
serious health risk for those girls and also prevents them from completing their
education.[189]

The Right to Full and Free Consent into
Marriage

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights stipulates that
marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the
intending parties. The ICCPR and the ICESCR also recognize the right to
marriage based on “full and free consent” of the spouses.[190]
Article 16 of CEDAW includes the equal right of men and women to enter into
marriage, and the Convention on the Consent to Marriage further specifies that
each spouse must give his or her consent “in person...as prescribed by
law.”[191]

The UN Human Rights Committee, which monitors the
implementation of the ICCPR, clarified in general comment no. 19 that the
marriageable age for both men and women shall be based on the ability of both
spouses to give their full and free consent.[192]In
its General Comment no. 28 it affirms states’ obligation to treat men and
women equally with regard to marriage.[193]CEDAW
General Comment no. 21 on the right to marriage reiterates men and
women’s equal right to enter into marriage, conditioned on their free and
full consent.[194]

The Right to Choose a Spouse

Article 16(b) of CEDAW notes the right of men and women to
freely choose a spouse.[195]The
CEDAW committee’s General Recommendation no. 21 requires states parties
to take “all appropriate measures” to guarantee that men and women
can freely choose a spouse.[196]Similarly,
General Comment no. 16 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights, which oversees implementation of the ICESCR, sets out states parties
obligations to “ensure that men and women have an equal right to choose
if, whom and when to marry.”[197]The
UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women also notes the
importance of free choice of spouse.[198]

Establishing a Consistent
Definition of a Child

The CRC defines a child as anyone below the age of 18 years.[199]
The CRC committee has repeatedly addressed the need for countries to establish
a definition of a child in all domestic legislation that is consistent with the
provisions of the CRC.[200]For
example, in 2009, the CRC committee recommended that Pakistan harmonize its
legislation with regards to the definition of a child and raise age of marriage
for girls to 18.[201]The
CRC, most recently in 2005, expressed concerns about the lack of a consistent definition
of a child in Yemen, especially between the age of majority and the age of
maturity.[202]

The
Obligation to Set a Minimum Age for Marriage and
Enforce Registration

Several international and regional conventions have
addressed the need for countries to set a minimum age for marriage. The 1962
Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registrations
of Marriage obliges states to set a minimum age for marriage in national
legislation and to ensure that no marriage can be legally entered into by
persons below that age, unless an exception is made by a competent authority in
accordance with national laws.[203]
The convention does not specify a minimum age, but in the non-binding
recommendation accompanying the convention it is recommended that the minimum
age be no less than 15.The Convention reaffirms that states should take all
appropriate measures to eliminate child marriage and the betrothal of girls
below puberty.[204]

Many of the other standards also do not specify a minimum
age, but there is an evolving consensus in international law that 18 should be
the minimum age for marriage. Notably, both the CRC and CEDAW committees have
taken a clear position on 18 as the minimum age. In 1994 the CEDAW committee
adopted a general recommendation on equality in marriage and family relations
that explicitly endorses 18 as the minimum age for marriage for both boys and
girls in accordance with the CRC’s definition of a child.[205]
The CRC’s 2003 General Comment on adolescent health and development also
urges increasing the minimum age for marriage with or without parental consent
to 18 for both boys and girls.[206]
These committees have pointed to the importance of delaying marriage to protect
young girls from the negative health implications of early marriage such as
early pregnancy and childbirth and to ensure that girls complete their
education.

On a regional level the African Charter on the Rights and
Welfare of the Child explicitly requires states to take effective action,
including legislation, to specify the minimum age of marriage as 18 years.[207]
The Maputo Protocol (Protocol to the African Charter on Human and
Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa) on women's rights also
specifies that states are to “enact appropriate national legislative measures
to guarantee that the minimum age of marriage for women shall be 18 years.”[208] In
Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a
recommendation that the minimum age for marriage be set at 18, in response to
which the Committee of Ministers recognized the clear tendency to fix the
minimum age for both men and women at 18 years.[209]

The Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for
Marriage and Registration of Marriages states that all marriages should be
registered by a competent authority.[210]
The CEDAW and CRC committees have also addressed in general, and the CRC
committee has addressed to Yemen in particular, the obligation of states
parties to make the registration of all births and marriages compulsory and to
put in place measures to enforce implementation.[211]

The CEDAW committee has argued that “the persistence
of the practice of early marriage […] may be perpetuated further by the
non-registration of births.”[212]
It has also set out states parties’ obligations with regard to the compulsory
registration of births as follows:

The Committee recommends that the State party take measures
to achieve free and timely registration of all births and undertake
awareness-raising measures, throughout the country, particularly in rural
areas, on the importance of registering births and the negative effects of
early marriage on women’s enjoyment of human rights, especially the
rights to health and education.[213]

The Right of Children to Express Their
Views Freely

The right of children to express their views is set out in
article 12 of the CRC which stipulates that they have this right in all matters
affecting them, according to their age and maturity.[214] The 2009 CRC
committee’s General Comment no. 12 on the right of the child to be heard
affirms this right in any judicial or administrative proceeding affecting his
or her well-being.[215]

This comment also recognizes that violence, including the
violence associated with child marriages, often goes unchallenged because
children do not recognize it as a violation of their human rights. The comment
notes the lack of child-friendly reporting mechanisms and the child’s
inability to report abuse in confidence and to be protected from retaliation.[216]In
its comment, the committee goes on to set out states parties’ obligations
to establish reporting mechanisms such as telephone help lines and support
mechanisms to assist children to express their views. This includes access to
physicians and to teachers who can offer a safe space for children to express
their views or to seek help in any matter related to their well-being.[217]

The
Right to Non-Discrimination

The rights to non-discrimination and equality between men
and women are enshrined in numerous human rights treaties, including the ICCPR,
the ICESCR, CEDAW, and the CRC. CEDAW addresses the right to non-discrimination
in relation to marriage, health, education, employment, and political
participation.

Article 1 of CEDAW defines "discrimination against
women" as any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of
sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition,
enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis
of equality of men and women.[218]

CEDAW also calls in article 16 for the elimination of discrimination
against women in all matters related to marriage and family relations. The CRC
in article 2 recognizes the right of children to be free from discrimination,
including on the grounds of sex and age.[219]Child
marriages, which in the vast majority of cases occur for girls and which impact
girls and women throughout their lives, are a form of gender-based
discrimination.

The Right to Health and Access to Health
Information

The right to health is set out in the ICESCR, CEDAW, the
CRC, and other treaties. Article 12 of the ICESCR defines the right to health
as the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical
and mental health, and requires that it be implemented without discrimination
on the basis of sex, age, or other prohibited grounds.[220] Article 24 of the CRC
recognizes children’s rights to health and to access health services, and
notably the right to be protected from traditional practices prejudicial to the
health of the child.[221]

Article 12 of CEDAW places an obligation on states to
eliminate discrimination against women in connection with health and their
access to health care. CEDAW stresses the need to provide appropriate services
in connection “with pregnancy, confinement and postnatal period, granting
free services where necessary, as well as adequate nutrition during pregnancy
and lactation.”[222]

In 2000, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights recognized that the right to health includes a right to access to
health-related information and education.[223]
The 2003 General Comment of the CRC committee emphasized the importance of
access to information for adolescents. The comment notes the
obligations of state parties to promote “health education, as well as
information campaigns, in particular with respect to ... sexual and
reproductive health, traditional practices, domestic violence.”[224] More specifically, the comment urges governments to take
“preventive, promotive and remedial action” to safeguard women
from harmful traditional practices, including child marriage, that
deprive girls and women their right to adequate reproductive or sexual health.[225]

In its general recommendation on women and health, the CEDAW
committee recommended that governments ensure women’s access to services
related to pregnancy, including neonatal and postnatal care and adequate
nutrition during pregnancy and breastfeeding.[226] The CEDAW committee
has listed as negative factors contributing to women’s poor health:

early marriage and early pregnancy, inadequate family
planning services and illiteracy, which is an obstacle to obtaining and
effectively using health-related information.[227]

To reduce maternal mortality, the CEDAW committee has also
developed recommendations to ensure and improve especially rural women’s
access to adequate reproductive health, in particular measures “to
increase knowledge of and access to contraceptive methods, bearing in mind that
family planning should be the responsibility of both partners.”[228] The
CEDAW committee has noted the link between high rates of maternal mortality and
child marriage in numerous countries.[229]

The CRC committee’s general comment on adolescent
health also voiced concern that early marriage and pregnancy contributed to
sexual and reproductive health problems, including HIV/AIDS.[230] In regard to India,
the CRC committee was concerned that “a very high percentage of early
marriages [could] have a negative impact on [adolescent girls’]
health.”[231]

The committee urged states parties to tackle child marriage
through raising awareness and changing prevailing gender stereotypes negative
for women, including through legislation.[232]The
committee also recommended that states improve women’s access to sexual
and reproductive health services, including family planning, adequate and
comprehensive obstetric care and mental health programs for young mothers who
may be prone to anxiety and depression, including about their inability to care
for a child.[233]It
also called on states parties to establish centers for information and advice
on the harmful effects of child marriage and early pregnancy.[234]

The Right to Education

The ICESCR guarantees to everyone the right to education.[235]
The right to equal opportunity in education is stipulated in the CRC and CEDAW.[236]Under
these conventions, Yemen has agreed to provide free and compulsory primary
education and available and accessible secondary education to every child.[237]

In its general recommendation on the aims of education, the
CRC committee explains the purpose of education to develop a child’s
“personality, talent, mental and physical abilities to full
potential” and to prepare a child to assume life’s
responsibilities.[238]
The committee also notes that an education provides children with life skills
and empowers them by developing their self-esteem and confidence.[239]

In 2005, the CRC committee noted the deficient quality of
education in Yemen, characterized by low primary and secondary school
enrollment and high dropout rates. The committee also noted the continued high
illiteracy rates for women and negative stereotypes of girls in the school
curricula. Further committee observations on education included the high
disparities in education between urban and rural areas, and the very low job
qualifications of children because of inadequate vocational training.[240]
The committee recommended that Yemen devote resources to realize free and
compulsory primary education for all, to quality training for teachers, and to
improve vocational training, including for dropouts, bearing in mind resource
allocation to decrease the disparity between girls’ and boys’
education, and between urban and rural areas.[241]

The CEDAW committee also raised concern about Yemen’s
high level of illiteracy for girls and women, and the high dropout rate for
girls. The committee recommended that:

Yemen take measures to: ensure access to all levels of
education, including access to proper facilities, for all girls and women;
increase formal and non-formal education for girls; provide training and employment
of female teachers; and to raise awareness about the importance of education as
a human right and as a basis for the empowerment of women, and to take steps to
overcome traditional attitudes that perpetuate discrimination, such as child
marriage.[242]

The CEDAW committee has elsewhere noted that child marriage
and early pregnancy impede girls’ rights to education, and are a primary
cause of school drop-out for girls.[243]
The ESCR committee’s general comment no. 13 on the right to education
stipulates that education is also an indispensable channel to realizing other
human rights. The committee notes that:

as an empowerment right, education is the primary vehicle
by which economically and socially marginalized adults and children can lift
themselves out of poverty and obtain the means to participate fully in their
communities.[244]

Education also serves to empower women and is
considered a country’s best financial investment, the committee held.[245]
The CRC committee’s general comment links adolescent mothers’
health to the continuation of their education.[246]

The CEDAW committee has raised concerns with many states
parties about the imperative to educate girls, described as “a key to the
advancement of women” and to overcome the impediments to girls’
education, including “pregnancy and early and forced marriage”
leading to girls dropping out.[247]The
CEDAW committee also underlined the need to address early and forced marriages
as factors preventing girls from enrolling in and completing their education.
The committee further emphasized the need to improve girls’ and
women’s literacy, especially in rural areas.[248]

The
Right to be Free from Physical, Mental, and Sexual Violence

As this report shows, girls who are subjected to child
marriage may experience violence from their spouses, in-laws, and other family
members. The CEDAW committee in its general recommendation no. 19 considers
violence against women “a form of discrimination that inhibits their
ability to enjoy their inalienable rights on par with men,”[249]and
notes that gender-based violence impairs many of women’s fundamental
rights including the right to life, liberty, and security of person, the right
of equality in the family, and the right to the highest attainable standard of
physical and mental health.[250]

The CEDAW committee’s general recommendation no. 19 notes
that traditional attitudes and stereotypes that regard women as subordinate to
men perpetuate violence, such as family violence, forced marriage, dowry
deaths, acid attacks, and female circumcision. It found that such prejudices
and practices may justify gender-based violence as a form of protection or
control of women.[251]

The CRC requires that states parties protect children from
physical, mental, and sexual abuse or exploitation through legislation and
other social and educational measures. The obligation to protect children from
violence includes protection from parents or other caregivers.[252] Article 34 of the CRC
clearly delineates the obligation of states to protect children from sexual
exploitation and abuse.[253]

V. Recommendations

To the Parliament of Yemen

Enact legislation which:

sets the minimum age for marriage at 18 in accordance with the
definition of a child in the Convention on the Rights of the Child;

makes those who perform, register, or assist in child marriages
liable to criminal prosecution, and establishes fines for the failure to
register marriages;

establishes the principle of full and free consent of both
partners to a marriage;

recognizes marital rape as a criminal offense;

ensures that girls married prior to the enactment of the new
legislation have the option of terminating their marriage and that the husband
remains legally obliged to maintain the wife in accordance with prior legal
obligations;

ensures that girls and women who are forcibly married shall have
the right to press criminal charges, seek a divorce, and seek alimony;

ensures that children born to mothers under 18 shall have the
same rights as children born in a legally recognized marriage; and

repeals or amends articles 15 and 23 in the Personal Status Law,
which violate the rights to enter freely into marriage and to full and free
consent to marriage.

To the Ministry of Religious
Endowments

Raise awareness with religious leaders about the harmful health and
other consequences of child marriage on the lives of girls and women.

To the Ministry of Health

Increase and improve access to reproductive health services and
information for all girls and women, including access to emergency obstetric
care and family planning.

Expand reproductive health care outreach to rural communities
where a large percentage of Yemenis live and where girl marry at younger ages,

Increase and improve training for birth attendants in rural areas
as most girls and women, especially in rural areas, give birth at home.

Raise awareness that government policy does not require husbands’
authorization for women to seek health care, including obstetric care,
regardless of the woman or girl’s age. Ensure that all health care
workers are aware that such authorization is not required.

Provide tailored health information to young mothers about proper
nutrition and care for their health and the health of their babies.

Raise awareness among health workers and the public on the
importance of registering births, including home deliveries.

Raise awareness on the imperative to register all births in the
Ministry of Health.

The Ministry of Education

Develop retention strategies to ensure that girls who enroll in
school are able to remain in school, such as incentives for families to keep
girls in school and to subsidize the costs of uniforms and textbooks.

Provide continuing formal education and vocational training
opportunities for married girls and women. Ensure that girls who have children
are able to attend school.

Increase the number of female teachers in rural areas as a
strategy to retain girls in school.

Provide or subsidize transportation to and from school for girls
living in distant rural areas where nearby schools are not accessible, and
where dropout rates and rates of child marriage are high.

To the Ministry of Justice

Provide training for lawyers, public prosecutors, and judges on
gender discrimination and violence against women, including child marriages.

Raise awareness on the imperative to register all marriages in
the Ministry of Justice.

To the Ministry of Interior

Provide training to law enforcement officials on gender
discrimination and violence against women, and investigate cases of violence
against women and girls.

After a law banning child marriages is in effect, conduct
investigations into child marriages and establish mechanisms (such as help
lines) for community members to report child marriages.

Ensure that the Department of Civil Status within the ministry
exchanges information with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Justice
on the registration of births and marriages, in urban and rural areas.

Raise awareness about the obligation to register births and
marriages through the media.

To Civil Society Organizations

Develop campaigns on preventing child marriage targeted at
children and parents of primary and secondary schools students. Explain the
harms the practice causes and the benefits of delayed marriage and
childbearing.

Once a law banning child marriage is passed, establish mechanisms
for reporting cases of child marriage, for example via help lines or through
collaboration with schools, hospitals, and clinics.

Assist married children in seeking legal remedies for abuse,
financial compensation after divorce, and in continuing their education.

Develop and maintain dialogue with religious leaders on issues
pertaining to the rights of girls and women, including on child marriage.

To International Donors

Support programs working to address violence and discrimination against
women and girls in the school curriculum.

Advocate for programs that seek to address barriers to
girls’ education, such as subsidies for school-related costs and the
provision of safe transportation for girls to schools in rural communities.

Collaborate with the Ministry of Health on ensuring the
availability of skilled birth attendants in rural communities and providing
transportation to women and girls seeking emergency obstetric care in rural
areas.

Support capacity-building initiatives for personnel at the
ministries of interior, justice, and health on the registration all births,
deaths, marriages, and divorce.

Support awareness campaigns on the imperative to register births,
deaths, marriages, and divorce in urban and rural areas.

Support programs that involve dialogue with religious leaders
about the harms of child marriage.

Acknowledgements

This report was researched and written by Nadya Khalife,
Middle East and North Africa researcher in the Women’s Rights Division.
The report was reviewed and edited by Liesl Gerntholtz and Janet Walsh,
director and deputy director of the Women’s Rights Division, Christoph Wilcke,
senior researcher in the Middle East and North Africa Division, Letta Tayler,
researcher for Yemen, Zama Coursen-Neff, deputy director of the
Children’s Rights Division, and Rebecca Schleifer, advocacy director of
the Health and Human Rights Division. Clive Baldwin, senior legal advisor, and
Tom Porteous, program director, provided legal and program reviews.

Human Rights Watch wishes to thank members of the Hewar
Foundation, the Sisters Arab Forum, and Seyaj Organization for Childhood
Protection for their assistance in facilitating this research mission. We are
also thankful for the support and assistance of Ms. Shada Nasser and Dr. Arwa
al-Rabi’i.

We wish to thank the girls and women who shared their
experiences with us. Without their support in helping us document their
stories, this report would have not been possible.

We acknowledge with gratitude the financial support of
Arcadia and other donors who have supported the work of the Women’s
Rights Division of Human Rights Watch.

[12]Human Rights Watch, Yemen: All Quiet
on the Northern Front?: Uninvestigated Laws of War Violations in Yemen’s
War with Huthi Rebels, April 2010,
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2010/04/07/all-quiet-northern-front-0, p. 15.

[13]Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre,
“Yemen: Conflict in various parts of the country continues to
displace,” August 12, 2011,
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4e4a1cbf2.html (accessed November 4,
2011).

[14]“Women Irate at Remarks of
President of Yemen,” New York Times, April 16, 2011,
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/world/middleeast/17yemen.html?_r=2 (accessed
November 2, 2011).

See also, UNDP, “Electoral
Support Project for the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum of
Yemen in Preparation for the 2006 Presidential, Governorate and Local Council
Elections,” 2006, http://www.undp.org.ye/reports/24773cf49b1155Election_11_Evaluation_Report_Final.doc
(accessed April 11, 2011), p. 1.

[24]Freedom House, “Women’s Rights in the Middle East and
North Africa, Country Reports, Yemen,” http://freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=384&key=268&parent=24&report=86,
p. 19.

[25]UNDP, “Electoral Support Project for the Supreme Commission
for Elections and Referendum of Yemen in Preparation for the 2006 Presidential,
Governorate and Local Council Elections,” http://www.undp.org.ye/reports/24773cf49b1155Election_11_Evaluation_Report_Final.doc
, p. 16.

[26]World Bank, “Yemen”
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.CACT.FE.ZS (accessed April 11,
2011).In 2000, female labor
force participation was 18.1 percent, and in 2005 it increased slightly to 21.3
percent. In 2008 the total female labor force participation had remained
stagnant at 21.7 percent. During the same years in 2000, 2005, and 2008, the
total labor force participation for men was 67.7 percent, 66 percent, and 65.9
percent respectively, slightly decreasing per year.

[43]UNESCO, “Education for All Global
Monitoring Report: Reaching the Marginalized,” 2010, http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001866/186606E.pdf
(accessed February 15, 2011), p. 413. The estimates are based on the most
recent data available for each country between the period between 2001 and 2007.
The gap in literacy rates between males and females in these three countries is
also smaller, 12 percentage points in Saudi Arabia, 10 percentage points in
Oman, and in the UAE, women led men in literacy rate by 2 percentage points.
Ibid., p. 308.

[51]UNICEF Division of Policy and Planning, “Accelerating
Girls’ Education in Yemen: Rethinking Policies in Teacher Recruitment and
School Distribution,” February 2007,
http://www.unicef.org/policyanalysis/files/Accelerating_Girls_Education_in_Yemen(1).pdf
(accessed October 5, 2010), pp.5-6. See also, CEDAW Committee,
“Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women,” Yemen, March 13, 2007, CEDAW/C/YEM/6, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/co/CEDAW-C-YEM-CO-6.pdf,
p. 28.

[58]International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), “Too Young
to Wed: The Lives, Health, and Rights of Young Married Girls,” 2003, http://www.icrw.org/files/publications/Too-Young-to-Wed-the-Lives-Rights-and-Health-of-Young-Married-Girls.pdf
(accessed October 5, 2010), p. 1.

[63]Adel Majid al-Shargaby, “Early
Marriage in Yemen: A Baseline Study to Combat Early Marriage in Hadhrahmawt and
Hudaidah Governorates,” Gender Development Research and Studies Centre,
Sanaa University, 2005, pp. 4 and 7.

[64]ICRW, “Child Marriage Around the
World,” 2006, http://www.icrw.org/files/images/Child-Marriage-Fact-Sheet-Around-the-World.pdf
(accessed January 19, 2011). Other countries included Niger, Chad, Bangladesh,
Mali, Guinea, Central African Republic, Nepal, Mozambique, Uganda, Burkina
Faso, India, Ethiopia, Liberia, Cameroon, Eritrea, Malawi, Nicaragua, Nigeria,
and Zambia. A 2010 updated list shows that Yemen, Liberia and Nigeria are no
longer listed in the top 20, and that Tanzania has been added to the list.
These figures are based on demographic health surveys in which women aged 20 to
24 were married before reaching 18. ICRW, Child Marriage Facts and Figures,
http://www.icrw.org/child-marriage-facts-and-figures (accessed January 19,
2011).

[74]According to UNICEF’s 2006 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey
for Yemen, only 22 percent of all births were registered. The most common
reason cited for non-registration is that mothers are not aware of the
requirement to register their babies. There is a strong correlation between the
educational status of women and the registration of births. According to the
survey, only 15.8 percent of births were registered by mothers with no or
little education, compared to 41.4 percent of births registered by mothers who
completed secondary school and higher. There is also a strong link
between birth registration and social and economic status. Only 5 percent of
poor households registered births while more than 50 percent of more wealthy
households did so.UNICEF, “Yemen Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey
(MICS),” http://www.childinfo.org/files/MICS3_Yemen_FinalReport_2006_Eng.pdf,
pp. 4, 16 and 54.

[75]In the late 1990s, many articles of Yemen’s Personal Status
Law were amended which significantly set back the status of women, including
article 15. These changes were a reflection of socio-political changes that
were taking place after unification of north and south Yemen, and after
“conservative and traditional tribal groups became more powerful.”
United Nations, “Country Assessment on Violence against Women:
Yemen,” http://www.un.org/womenwatch/ianwge/taskforces/vaw/Country_Assessment_on_Violence_against_Women_August_2_2010.pdf,
p. 10. See also, Japan International Cooperation Agency, Public Policy
Department, “Yemen: Country Gender Profile,”
http://www.jica.go.jp/activities/issues/gender/pdf/e08_yem.pdf (accessed
October 5, 2010), p. iv.

[81]One of the duties of the Council of Ministers is to prepare draft
laws and resolutions and submit them to the House of Representatives
(parliament). Constitution of Yemen, September 29, 1994, art.135 (c).

A draft law submitted to parliament
by anyone other than a member of parliament must be first sent to one of twenty
permanent committees. One of the roles of the committee is to review draft laws
prior to tabling them for general discussion. If any of the committees does not
agree with an article in the draft law, they may make amendments that must be
then reviewed by the constitutional and/or legal committees, which the entire
parliament then must approve. A request by five percent of parliamentarians for
further discussion of specific articles suffices to initiate further committee
review. In order for a draft law to pass, it will need two-thirds majority. The
president of the republic enacts draft legislation into law following approval
by parliament. The president can within 30 days request parliament to
reconsider the legislation, providing reasons. Parliament can make further
amendments or give final approval to the law.Yemen Polling Center, Yemen Parliamentary Watch, “Bylaws of
the House of Representatives,” April 2010, pp. 37-40.

[85]The parliamentarians relied on articles 124 and 125 in the
parliament’s bylaws that allow for further deliberation of specific
articles if requested by a representative of the government or five percent of
parliamentarians. The Sharia Legislative Committee is
tasked with reviewing all draft laws concerned with Islamic Sharia law.Yemen Polling Center, Yemen Parliamentary
Watch, “Bylaws of the House of Representatives,” p. 16.

[89]Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, “Between Government and Opposition: The case of the Yemen
Congregation for Reform,” November 2009, http://www.carnegie-mec.org/publications/special/multimedia/index.cfm?fa=24095-yemen&lang=en
(accessed November 11, 2010), pp. 3-7.

[106]Article 12 of the CRC notes that States parties shall assure a
child who is capable of forming his or her views the right to freely express
those views in accordance with the age and maturity of the child. CRC, art. 12.

See also, Committee
on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 12, The Right of the Child to
Be Heard, U.N. Doc.CRC/C/GC/12(2009).

[126]There are only 2,375 trained, professional midwives in Yemen. That
is a ratio of 0.6 midwives for every 52,000 persons. In Sanaa, the ratio of
doctors is 5.2 for every 10,000 persons, while in rural areas such as Amran,
the ratio is 0.5 to 10,000. Maternal deaths in Yemen can be explained by the
three delay model, which includes delay in seeking emergency obstetric care due
to a lack of danger signs, delay in reaching health facilities due to poverty,
lack of ambulances or other transportation, and geographical obstacles, and
delay when arriving to health facilities that do not have enough personnel, or
adequate supplies to treat emergency obstetric cases. Furthermore, Yemen is
divided into four physical regions; the coastal plain of Tihama, the mountain
foothills, the central highlands and the eastern semi-desert plateau. Many of
extremely rugged areas are without roads, and houses are linked with steep
mountainous paths. The network of paved road mainly connects the cities, the
other are still rudimentary. These natural barriers of topography have limited
access to health services. Yemen-German Reproductive Health Program, “Situational
Analysis on Emergency Obstetric Care in Public Hospitals,”
http://www.yg-rhp.org/oc/EmOC%20Situation%20Yemen%202006%20YG-RHP.pdf, pp. 8, 6
and 11.

[138]A Ministry of Health survey found that
29.6 percent of women in urban areas, and 53.7 percent of women in rural areas
noted that getting permission to access treatment was an obstacle. Other
obstacles to receiving treatment include not knowing where to go to access
healthcare, not having enough money, distance, lack of transportation,
and unavailability of female provider. These obstacles were particularly high
for women living in rural areas. Republic of Yemen, Ministry of Health and
Population, “Family Health Survey,” http://www.mophp-ye.org/arabic/docs/Familyhealth_english.pdf,
p. 114.

[139]According to Dr. Arwa Al-Rabi’i, the authorization forms are
printed forms in the name of the hospital or medical center that state that the
hospital will not be responsible for any incident that may occur due to the
procedure that will be performed. It will explain the procedure and reason for
admission and require the woman’s guardian’s signature. Human
Rights Watch telephone conversation with Dr. Arwa Al-Rabi’i,
gynecologist, January 27, 2011.

[146]The rate of contraceptive use for women aged 15-49 in Yemen and the
United Arab Emirates is 28 percent, equal to the rate in the United Arab
Emirates. Saudi Arabia has the lowest contraceptive use for women in the region
(24 percent) and Iran has the highest prevalence of contraceptive use (73 percent).
UNFPA, “State of World Population 2011, People and Possibilities in a
World of 7 Billion,” 2011,
http://foweb.unfpa.org/SWP2011/reports/EN-SWOP2011-FINAL.pdf (accessed October
27, 2011), p. 114.

[148]According to the Yemen Family Health Survey, the percentage of
married girls and women between 15 and 19 who discussed family planning with
their husbands was only 39.3 percent. Married girls whose needs were unmet with
regard to birth spacing was 46.1 percent. Republic of Yemen, Ministry of Health
and Population, “Family Health Survey,” http://www.mophp-ye.org/arabic/docs/Familyhealth_english.pdf,
pp. 166-167.

[160]Sherifa Zuhur, “Gender, Sexuality and the Criminal Laws in
the Middle East and North Africa: A Comparative Study,” February 2005,
http://www.wwhr.org/files/GenderSexualityandCriminalLaws.pdf (accessed May 24,
2011), pp. 44-45.

[176]Save the Children, “Women on the Front Lines of Healthcare:
State of the World’s Mothers, 2010,”
http://www.savethechildren.org/atf/cf/%7B9def2ebe-10ae-432c-9bd0-df91d2eba74a%7D/SOWM-2010-Women-on-the-Front-Lines-of-Health-Care.pdf
(accessed April 11, 2011), p. 32.

[177]Human Rights Watch interview with Maha
R., Sanaa, September 2, 2010.Maha was the only interviewee who had completed
her secondary education. She plans to go to college to become a pharmacist.

[178]Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW), adopted December 18, 1979, G.A. res. 34/180, 34 U.N.
GAOR Supp. (No. 46) at 193, U.N. Doc.A/34/46, entered into force September 3,
1981. The Convention was adopted by Yemen in 1984 with reservations to article
29, para. 1., on the interpretation of the Convention.

[179]Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and
Registration of Marriages, adopted November 7, 1962, G.A. res. 1763
(XVII), entered into force December 9, 1964. The Convention on Consent to
Marriage was ratified by Yemen in 1987 with no reservations.

[185]African Charter on the Rights and Welfare
of the Child (ACRWC) OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/24.9/49 (1990), entered into force November, 29, 1999, art. 21(2) - Child
marriage and the betrothal of girls and boys shall be prohibited ....; and Protocol to the African Charter on
Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo
Protocol), adopted by the 2nd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Union,
Maputo, September 13, 2000, CAB/LEG/66.6, entered into force November 25, 2005,
art. 6 (calling for laws to establish 18 as the
minimum age of marriage).

[186]Committee on the Rights of the Child,
“Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 44 of
the Convention, Concluding Observations, Yemen,” CRC/C/15/Add.267,
September 25, 2005, http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/pdfid/45377ea90.pdf(accessed
November 16, 2010), para. 59.

[187] Ibid. See also, CEDAW Committee,
“Concluding Observation of the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination against Women, Yemen,” July 2, 2008, CEDAW/C/YEM/CO/6,
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/co/CEDAW-C-YEM-CO-6.pdf
(accessed October 5, 2010), art. 379.

[197]UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights, General Comment No. 16, The equal right of men and women to the
enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights (Article 3),
(thirty-fourth session, 2005), para. 27.

[200]See for example CRC, “Consideration of Reports Submitted by
States Parties under Article 44 of the Convention, Concluding Observations,
Angola,” October 11, 2010,
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/crcs55.htm, paras.26 and 27.

[201]CRC, “Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties
under Article 44 of the Convention: Concluding Observations, Pakistan,”
CRC/C/PAK/CO/4, October 15, 2009,
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/docs/co/CRC-C-PAK-CO4.doc (accessed
November 16, 2010), paras.26 and 27.

[202]CRC, “Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties
under Article 44 of the Convention, Concluding Observations, Yemen,”
CRC/C/15/Add.267, September 21. 2005,

[206]UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 4,
Adolescent Health and Development in the Context of the Convention on the
Rights of the Child, (Thirty-third session, 2003), para. 20.

[211]For the specific recommendation to Yemen, see: CRC
“Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 44 of
the Convention, Concluding Observations, Yemen,” May 10, 1999, para. 20.

For other countries, see for
example: CEDAW Committee, “Concluding Observations of the Committee to
End All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Papua New Guinea,” July
30, 2010, http://www.universalhumanrightsindex.org/documents/826/1865/document/en/pdf/text.pdf,
paras. 49 and 50.

[212]CEDAW Committee, “Concluding Observations of the Committee on
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Ethiopia,”
CEDAW/C/ETH/4-5, January
2004,http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/co/EthiopiaCO30.pdf, para.
253.

[227]CEDAW Committee, “Concluding Observations of the Committee to
End All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Nepal,” January 13, 2004,
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/co/NepalCO30.pdf, para. 212.

[229] See for example CEDAW Committee, “Concluding Observations of
the Committee to End All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Nigeria,”
July 8, 2008, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/co/CEDAW-C-NGA-CO-6.pdf
para.336. “The Committee is especially concerned
at the very high maternal mortality rate, the second highest in the
world....The Committee notes the various contributing factors such as...early
and child marriages, early pregnancies, high fertility rates and inadequate
family planning services, the low rates of contraceptive usage, leading to
unwanted and unplanned pregnancies, and the lack of sex education, especially
in rural areas. The Committee expresses concern about the lack of access by
women and girls to adequate health-care services, including prenatal and
postnatal care, obstetric services and family planning information,
particularly in rural areas.”

[230]Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 4,
Adolescent Health and Development in the Context of the Convention on the
Rights of the Child, (Thirty-third session), para. 20.

[242]CEDAW Committee, “Concluding Observations of the Committee to
End All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Yemen,” July 9 ,2008, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/co/CEDAW-C-YEM-CO-6.pdf,
art. 374.

[243]See for example, CEDAW Committee, “Concluding
Observations of the Committee to End All Forms of Discrimination against Women,
Uganda,” October 22, 2010, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/co/CEDAW-C-UGA-CO-7.pdf,
para. 31.

[246]Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 4,
Adolescent Health and Development in the context of the Convention on the
Rights of the Child, (Thirty-third session, 2003), para. 31.

[247]CEDAW Committee, “Concluding Observations of the Committee to
End All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Sierra Leone,” June 11,
2007,
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw25years/content/english/CONCLUDING_COMMENTS/Sierra_Leone/Sierra_Leone.pdf, para. 30.

[248]CEDAW Committee, “Concluding
Observations of the Committee to End All Forms of Discrimination against Women,
Niger,” June 11, 2007, http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/publisher,CEDAW,CONCOBSERVATIONS,NER,468b5dfa2,0.html, para. 30.